Limited menus and outdoor seating. More Bradenton restaurants reopen as limits loosened
More Bradenton area restaurants reopened their dining rooms on Monday, a week after Gov. Ron DeSantis partially lifted his stay-at-home order to curb the spread of COVID-19.
Among those reopening are the three Chiles Group restaurants: the Sandbar, 100 Spring Ave., Anna Maria, The Beach House, 200 Gulf Drive N., Bradenton Beach, and Mar Vista, 760 Broadway Street, North Longboat Key.
Also reopening are three of the four Anna Maria Oyster Bar restaurants: Landside, 6906 14th St. W.; Ellenton, 1525 51st Ave. E.,; and the Pier, 200 Bridge St., Bradenton Beach.
“We’ve got a few more tweaks on our computers and seating to complete at Cortez (6696 Cortez Road). Hopefully, we’ll only be a few days behind the other openings. We plan to serve a limited menu to you daily from 12-8 p.m.,” the Oyster Bar said in an emailed newsletter.
All dining at the Sandbar, The Beach House and Mar Vista will be outside under covered seating, company founder Ed Chiles said.
“We called the staff back on Thursday and worked through the weekend, spacing and cleaning, again. We are working on training the staff on the protocols,” Chiles said. “We wanted to take a long pause before we reopened. We are excited to get back and have our people back.”
Guests will choose their meals from disposable menus, and dine using compostable dinnerware, he said.
“We are really regulating what comes inside and focusing on all the Centers for Disease Control and Florida Restaurant Association guidelines,” Chiles said. “Safety, safety, safety.”
Stepped up testing for COVID-19 in Manatee County during the past 10 days has been reassuring for Chiles that the community has started getting a better handle on the pandemic.
Hours at all three Chiles restaurants will be 11:30 a.m.- 9 p.m. The to-go portion of the business, which has been growing, will continue, Chiles said.
John Horne reached out to his Anna Maria Oyster Bar customers recently in a newsletter, and said that his staff has been focusing on safety and “will continue to ramp up our game at all of our restaurants. We’ll be monitoring our staff’s health to the best of our ability without breaking any HIPPA laws.”
He also revealed that all of his Oyster Bar staff of 335 have been receiving full pay for the past five weeks since the restaurant closed its dining rooms and stopped serving carryout.
“We’re doing this so they don’t have to go out to apply for unemployment compensation, so they can stay home, stay safe, and stay healthy so when we do reopen, they will all be healthy and ready to see our guests again,” Horne wrote.
For the first few weeks of reopening, the Oyster Bar restaurants will have a limited menu while gauging business levels and ensuring everyone’s safety and food handling safety, the company said.
Oak & Stone, known for its craft beer, and artisanal pizza, reopened all five locations, following state guidelines for limited capacity and social distancing. It also started offering take-out and delivery May 5.
Oak & Stone has local restaurants at 5405 University Parkway in University Center, and at 1202 First Ave. W., in the SpringHill Suites in downtown Bradenton. It also has a Fastfire Restaurant at 6220 14th St. W., Bradenton.
Oak & Stone has introduced touchless taps at all of its locations. Both the ground-level restaurant and the roof-top restaurant at SpringHill Suites in downtown Bradenton now have the same limited menu.
Oak & Stone restaurants also offer take-out and delivery with call-ahead phone orders and also through BiteSquad. The Fastfire location in Bradenton can take call ahead phone orders and delivery through BiteSquad, Uber Eats and Door Dash.
New operating hours for all locations, including Fastfire are Tuesday – Sunday from noon to 8 p.m. Oak & Stone is closed on Mondays.
“We’re pleased to safely re-open all of our locations and provide the very best artisanal pizza and local craft beer available,” said co-owner Brett Decklever in a press release “We hope the food and flavors of Oak & Stone can welcome people back and provide a sense of community and normalcy during this time.”
